Vote now for AJB in try-of-the-week comp

CALLING all Oldham fans . . . now is the time to get on the OuRLeague app and vote for Aaron Jones Bishop’s second try against Workington on Sunday in the Championship and League 1 try-of-the-week competition.

AJB’s magnificent touchdown in the corner, goaled by Dave Hewitt off the touchline, to take us into a 26-20 lead midway through the second half, is one of four tries nominated for the award by OuRLeague’s Jamie Jones-Buchanan.

Describing it, he says:

“Zack McComb’s magical footwork in the centre allows Aaron Jones-Bishop to produce his touch of class as he contortions himself around the corner flag in an attempt to avoid touch while using finger-tip control to get the ball down in the corner.”

The other three nominees are:

ROB WORRINCY for his long-range try for Dewsbury against Swinton Lions in the Championship.

MO AGORO for Newcastle Thunder against Doncaster, who won 32-26 with Danny Langtree in the second-row on dual-reg from Hull FC.

GAVIN MARGUERITE, who also scored from long-range in Toulouse Olympique’s 42-12 win against Rochdale in the South of France.

Of the four, AJB’s try was the only one to require corner-flag acrobatics.

Describing it in his match report on the Roughyeds website, ROGER HALSTEAD said the Oldham winger scored

“with a spectacular dive and twist which was a similar effort to many you see on TV when Super League wingers touch down spectacularly.”

Ian Wilson, who this season has a regular column in the Roughyeds’ match-day programme (a glossy and colourful 24 pages for £3 at every home game), gave AJB as his Oldham man of the match in League Express.

Voting closes tomorrow (Wed) and the winner will be announced on Friday so there’s no time to waste . . . vote for our man (your man too if you support Oldham) and vote NOW.

Sunday’s crowd – 765 — was the second best at the Vestacare Stadium since the promotion season of 2015 and a highly encouraging one for the club given that this season there are only ten home league games.

Writing in last Sunday’s programme, club chairman Chris Hamilton said:

“Three fewer home matches this year is nearly 25 per cent down on previous years and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out the financial impact that will have on the club.

“We have tried desperately hard to offset that impact by launching a series of initiatives, which most of you by now will have experienced or be aware of.

“With the financial model of every club outside Super League now being inextricably linked to return on investment it is a seismic shift in the way that clubs run and operate.

“The 2019 season is the first season with those changes and ‘return on investment’ will become more important as it will play an increasingly bigger part of a club’s central funding each season from now on.

“The aim for us is to become more resilient, more focused, more diverse and lots more as we aim to respond positively to this changing world.

“Now, more than ever, you the fans have a vital role to play in ensuring we have a club to follow and one which can hopefully prosper.

“We nearly lost Keighley Cougars so this is not merely words — it’s real.

“It is an ongoing battle to stay afloat and I mean for every club, not just ours. I think it’s fair to say, though, that we are in a good spot to move forward.

“Everybody has a part to play in that.”

Defeat by Workington, especially disappointing given that Anthony Bowman’s tremendous last-gasp effort was disallowed for offside, means this coming Sunday’s clash with Whitehaven at the Vestacare Stadium (3pm) has even more riding on it.

The Cumbrians beat Keighley 28-16 at the Recreation Ground last Sunday and they come to Oldham in second place and no doubt determined to do what their derby rivals Workington did.

If the game is half as intense and dramatic as last week’s opener it will be another Vestacare Sunday afternoon not to be missed.